The Sunday Survival Buzz Volume 95

Welcome to this week’s Sunday Survival Buzz – a roundup of preparedness news, tips, articles and recommendations from around the web. But first, an update on my own preps.

By now you all should know that my new eBook, The Prepper’s Guide to Food Storage, launched this week on Amazon. I was frantic trying to get everything done and had to pull a few all-nighters. Alas, my preps took a backseat to eBook-ing. I did recruit the Survival Husband to take our new BaoFeng Ham Radios out of their boxes and get them charged up. Our plan is to get through the self-study course for our tech license before the end of the year. Will we make it?

So that’s it for my preps this week. Let’s get on to the Sunday Survival Buzz.

SURVIVAL NEWS & ARTICLES FROM AROUND THE WEB

The Pressure Cooker That is America: Interesting thoughts from one of my blogging colleagues. This is what many of us are preparing for – for better or for worse. Just wondering – do you think the top is getting ready to blow soon?

Home Test Kit Helps You Find Antibiotics In Leaves: After reading this, I had to think about whether this was a good thing or not. Wouldn’t it be better to find a way to take advantage of the natural healing properties of plants and leaves without involving big pharma and the greedsters?

Kickstarter Isn’t A Store, But These People Still Want Their iPods: At least once a week, I get a pitch from someone asking me to share their Kickstarter project on BDS. I ignore the requests for three reasons: I do not have the time to check each one out in advance, I was burned once by promoting such a campaign here on BDS, and three, promised products (as described in this article) are sometimes phantom (bogus?) and never delivered. No thank you.

BACKDOOR SURVIVAL MAIL BAG & READER TIPS

It might be worthwhile separating OPSEC into two categories: What the government and big business knows, and what the neighbors, friends, and acquaintances know.

It is probable that no person in the government knows anything about any of us. If they want to though, the data is in the computer banks. They can correlate where our cell phones have been the last five years with where anyone else’s has been. They can access metadata from all of our phone calls and emails (and I suspect they do have the contents as well. Just because they deny it doesn’t make it so) They can read all of our comments to news stories and blogs. They can access all our Amazon order data.

However, unless we are suspected of actively working to overthrow the government, they have little reason to look at that info.

Neighbors, friends, acquaintances: We cannot expect them to help themselves if we do not discuss the possibility with them. I have discussed hurricane preparedness with a small number of people, and seem to have influenced one to store some water. Another upgraded his water filtration gear. I don’t know about the rest.

Since there are several swimming pools in our area, we do plan on providing water filtration services for neighbors if the municipal water supply gets knocked out, most likely because the power grid it relies on gets knocked out. We can’t supply food, so we don’t worry about what we cannot do.

We are natural disaster preppers, not TEOTWAWKI preppers, because we just don’t think TEOTWAWKI is survivable on Oahu, at least not by us, and because the probability seems too low to worry us much. That automatically makes us less threatening/’weird’ to others, because we can talk about the utterly unarguable reality of hurricanes and other disasters.

So, we keep it low key, we prep so we can help the neighbors, at least with water, and don’t make a big deal of it. If people respond positively to a comment, we can follow up. If not, we let it drop.

AND THE WINNER IS . . .

I have two winners this week.

“Brian” has one a copy of all three books in the A. American Survivalist Series. Here is how he answered the question How far could you walk to make it home if you were separated from your family?

With 3 designated gathering places (use the closest one, unless circumstances don’t allow and leave message showing where you are going next) already identified, none of us would go home, but we WILL meet up!

Both winners have been notified and will have 48 hours to claim their prize. Coming up this week in the Winter Blast Giveaway is the Lifestraw Family. Be sure to watch for it on Thursday.

NEWS FROM OUR SPONSOR

This week I am pleased to announce our latest premium sponsor, VIVOGEAR. Between now and the end of the year, VIVOGEAR is offering 15% storewide and free shipping on orders over $99.

As with all of my sponsors, please pay them a visit and let them know you saw them on Backdoor Survival. You can also visit their Facebook page here.

Speaking of which, check out the Backdoor Survival Sponsors page and support the fine companies that allow me to keep Backdoor Survival free for everyone.

FACEBOOK WOES

This message came in Saturday afternoon from one of my FB Fans:

I follow a few different survival groups on Facebook and have noticed that a few postings from various sites are not going thru. Have also seen a report from SHTF site that Facebook has been closing down or extreme filtering of some site. Have you heard or witnessed such?

My response was this:

YES! FB is also throttling my posts even though they are relatively benign. They are going through but only showing them to about 300 of my page fans. Up until a few days ago, they would be “seen” by 2,000 to 4,000 fans of the 9,900 Backdoor Survival fans. This is Facebook’s way of telling us we must pay. In my opinion, they are treating bloggers like commercial businesses. The difference, of course, is we are sharing free information and not just selling stuff.

That said, some the of SHTF blogging sites are fronts for nefarious info-products. They steal content from sources such as this website then pitch their products to visitors. It is a huge problem for authors such as myself.

I do realize that I am whining a bit but to tell the truth, I spend a couple of hours a day keeping my Facebook page current but if this continues, I may have to cut back. The sad part is that I share a lot of free stuff on FB. Because the time-frames are so fleeting, it would not be appropriate to share them on the website.

OTHER ANNOUNCEMENTS

My email runneth over with requests for more information about essential oils. Believe me when I say I am not an expert but as I experiment and learn, I will share my experiences with you. In the meantime, if you have a special request, be sure to let me know. And in case you missed it, Spark Naturals is offering FREE SHIPPING on any order (US and Canada) through Tuesday. I just ordered some “Dream Blend” to rub on my feet at night. Be sure to use the coupon code BACKDOORSURVIVAL for 10% off your order.

Coming up next? How about a simple recipe for DIY Peppermint Scrub? This is something that us ladies adore and guys, even you can make it now for gifting on Christmas. I will try to get this posted in the next day or two.

THE FINAL WORD

Another week and almost another year gone by. Where has the time gone? I don’t know about you, but I am going to need a “save by sanity” break sometime soon. At least that sounds good. I think, however, I may need to settle for some chocolate truffles instead.

What about you – what did you do to prep this week? Until, next time, remember to make every day a prep day!

Enjoy your next adventure through common sense and thoughtful preparation!Gaye

If you have not done so already, please be sure to like Backdoor Survival on Facebook to be updated every time there is an awesome new article, news byte, or link to a free survival, prepping or homesteading book on Amazon. You can also follow Backdoor Survival on Pinterest.

Just released! My new eBook, The Prepper’s Guide to Food Storagewill provide you with everything you need to create an affordable food storage plan, including what to buy and how to store it. Nothing scary and nothing overwhelming – you really can do this! Now available at Amazon.

________________________________________________________________

Bargain Bin: For your discernment, here are some of the items mentioned in today’s Buzz.

BaoFeng UV-5R Dual-Band Ham Radio: I had to look twice when I saw the price of this – $29.55 as of this writing! The Baofeng UV-5R is a compact hand held transceiver providing 4 watts in the frequency range of 136-174 MHz and 400-480 MHz. It is a compact, economical HT that includes a special VHF receive band from 65 – 108 MHz which includes the regular FM broadcast band. Dual watch and dual reception is supported. Here is the antenna I ordered: NAGOYA Antenna for BAOFENG UV-5R (thanks to a recommendation from my pal, George Ure).

The Survivalist Series by A. American: Going Home, Surviving Home, and Escaping Home are the first three books in the Survivalist Series by popular author, A. American. You will love these books – survival fiction at its best.

ZAQ Dew Aromatherapy Diffuser: This essential oil diffuser uses water and essential oils to make make a mist of micro-particles and disperse them into the air. No heating or burning means the properties of the oil are not broken down.Low energy use. The really cool thing is that the light (which can be turned off) changes colors all by its own self. Very soothing and I love it!

LifeStraw Personal Water Filter: The LifeStraw is considered the most advanced, compact, ultra light personal water filter available. It contains no chemicals or iodinated resin, no batteries and no moving parts to break or wear out. It weighs only 2oz. making it perfect for the prepper. Also, check out the Lifestraw Family.

The monthly specials at Emergency Essentials feature discounts of up to 35% off sometimes a bit more. I have a monthly budget and each month I add a bit more FD products to my long term storage – always making my selection from sale items.

And don’t forget there is still time to get someRED EMERGENCY CANDLES – including gift bags and bows – for gift-giving off. These are great candles, even for non-emergency purposes.

Need something from Amazon (and who doesn’t)? I earn a small commission from purchases made when you begin your Amazon shopping experience here. You still get great Amazon service and the price is the same, no matter what.

Comments

Tech licence? Sure you’ll get it – and if George Sure has anything to do with your learning, you will probably be able to pass the general exam too!
As for Facebook, I personally never got on that bandwagon, despite being urged to do so by family and friends. So, I’ve never been able to ‘like’ BDS there – sorry.

I prepped 2 first aid kits for the car. One for us two legged and one for our 4-legged. Some winter gear, tool kit for car, and some emergency food items, hand Warners and sleeping bags. For the road trip. Pray we don’t need to use them. Been really busy and my head is still spinning from it all. Love your article Gaye, thank you for all you do.

I’ve been licensed since the 70’s and my husband since before that. You will have no problem passing the tech. exam. There is no code requirement anymore, either, so that’s not a part of the exam now.
I am looking forward to getting a copy of your new book.
I recently got the Burn Free First Aid Kit from Emergency Essentials (on sale). What a great value! I am impressed by the contents! Hope I never need them!
My Christmas wish list should fill a few holes in my preps.
Happy Holidays to you and yours.

they throw the widow into the street because the home isnt up to code? tell me what code is the street up too? i would think a house no matter what shape is still betterthan being HOMELESS .Thats goverenment “logic” for ya

I think you would have preferred the performance of the NAGOYA NA-771 DUAL BAND Antenna instead of the NAGOYA NA-701 DUAL BAND Antenna. It is a little longer, but still very manageable and great Tx/Rx. Make sure it is a true NAGOYA and not a knockoff. Congratulations on your decision to get your Technician’s License. It will open a whole new world for you.

no worries about the ham-exam. i took the master’s course and passed the tests when i was 12 (and in those days you had to learn to send and receive morse code at 13 words per minute; that may not sound like much, but it’s not easy). anyway, if i could do it then, i’ve no doubt you and hubby can now. have fun.

Sometimes we need to take advantage of what comes our way. In my case, I went to a 2nd hand store I had been told was going out of business. The owner asked if there was anything I was looking for. Told her I was just browsing but was interested in any herbal books she might have or anything about foraging. After looking, she didn’t find anything like that BUT…she pulled out a 2004 PDR of Herbal Medicine. That’s the textbook for the Naturapathic School just outside of Portland OR. I’m too old to go to school but I sure have been envious about having this particular book in case of collapse. As it stands now, there aren’t enough healers to go around with so many coming in on the ACA. Just imagine how much healers will be needed even if they (I) can’t get out and around, people will be able to come to me because of my knowledge and skills. I also now own a copy of the Survival Medicine Handbook. Though not trained as a nurse nor doc…I have spent my share of time working with animals…not much of a shift to work with people in an emergency since I been doing the natural thing for myself and family for over 10 years. Yes, Christmas came early for me. Now to find a deal on a ham radio. 😉

If you do decide on that one, note that I am going to posting my progress setting them up and getting my license including helpful tips and links. Lots of reader that are HAMs are helping me out so I will share the love (knowledge).

Connect with Me

MEET GAYE

I'm Gaye, just an ordinary gal trying to make sense of our changing world. I am addicted to prepping, DIY projects, adult coloring books, and ballroom dancing. I live what I call a strategic life and believe you should too. Everyone needs to prepare for the worst and live for the best. Won't you join me?

Categories

BEST PRICES ON AMMO

NEW EDITION JUNE 2016

A frequent question I get on Backdoor Survival has to do with healthcare matters when there is no doctor around. This is the definite source of survival medical information for all Prepper’s and is my go-to bible for survival medicine.

VOTE FOR BACKDOOR SURVIVAL

EBOOK ONLY 99 CENTS + AVAILABLE IN PRINT!

NOTE

BackdoorSurvival.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

Health, Wellness, & Survival Medicine

Disclosure: Some of the links on this website may be affiliate links. When you make a purchase from these links, I earn a small commission. While commissions allow me to keep this site 100% free, I only endorse products I use myself and trust.